Day 27 - Cambridge, MA

[Kalon] Got up early and left Karen sleeping while I drove our Prius to the Toyota dealer in Wellesley for its 5k mile service (we have put on almost 5000 miles since we left SB 4 weeks ago).   There service dept is a model for what an auto dealer's service operation should be: incredibly well organized and laid out. 

Returned 90 minutes later to say goodbye to Karen's friend Karen, and then we drove to Cambridge (where I spent 4 years getting educated?)  First we had to find a parking spot and that was extremely difficult.  Finally found limited time on-street metered parking.  We walked by my residential house (Adams) with its ornate entrance, but it was closed.

So then on to Harvard Yard (after leaving Karen to browse in a bookstore).

The "Yard" (where the freshmen live) is perhaps one of the few attractive places belonging to Harvard.  The larger campus is spread out over quite a few blocks and interspersed with cars, stores, and city life.  During my freshman year I lived in the Yard in Thayer (also locked).

Thayer

I then visited one of the premier academic libraries in the country, Widener library.  I got photographed (so as to have access to the library) and then went to the archives.  There I talked with the archivist and inquired as to the status of my father's archival collection (as an emeritus professor in the school of education the library was interested in acquiring his papers/letters/publications.)  I was given a list of what they had, but since it was stored off-site it would take 1 or 2 days to retrieve any requested information for review.  So next visit I'll plan ahead as I am sure there is much there that would be fascinating to me.

K and I had lunch and then set off to visit MIT.  My, how the area has changed (but then it has been 55 years!!!)  New buildings, changed traffic patterns, and almost complete automobile deadlock.  After a few attempts to find parking close to where Karen and I worked together (and where we met) we decided it wasn't worth the candle and slowly made our way up the coast to Gloucester.

[Karen] It would have been nice to have been able to visit MIT but it was a madhouse of trucks, detours, and Massachusetts drivers, To tell the truth, we couldn't even find MIT at first! We had forgotten our way around and had driven down Cambridge Ave. which led us off course. When we finally found our way to Mass Ave. we first parked too many blocks away and spent a long time trying to walk there. Finally, we gave up and did manage to drive past the Mass Ave entrance but were quickly pushed past the entrance and up and over the 'Salt and Pepper Shaker' bridge and into downtown Boston where we quickly got enmeshed in traffic on Storrow Drive and pulled into North Boston where we glimpsed Durgin Park enroute but as time was flying we decided to forgo the experience of revisiting out gluttonous past (but I longed for just one taste of Indian Pudding
 - cooked Farina with maple brown sugar stirred in?) Miss KIA (Know It All) managed to get us out onto 93 and we proceeded toward Gloucester. Kalon has redeveloped his skills as a Mass driver and is able to dive in and out of lanes with dexterity. We have decided that our GPS system has two persona : one is polite and knowledgeable (Miss Know It All) and the second is Miss Know Nothing who pronounces everything incorrectly.